There's one thing many of the nascent improvements to supply chain technology have in common: data. Implementing policies and changes based on harvested data will likely continue to set the tone for some of the most popular innovations, including those for procurement and supply management. For health care, the use of analytics is set to revolutionize the sector in several ways, according to a recent Zion Market Research report.

The abstract for the report said that predictive health care demand is set to rise in "significant" amounts between 2016 and 2024. It also said that North America, particularly the U.S. and Canada, have been the major centers for this market due to the available workforce in those countries.

Predictive analytics' wide rangeBecause of the many possible uses for these systems, the phrase "predictive analytics" obviously goes beyond the supply chain, but it could have implications for that area as well. A Society of Actuaries "Predictive Analytics in Healthcare Trend Forecast" for 2017 featured data culled from 223 health company executives.

Based on these results, 89 percent of the providers plan to implement predictive analytics over the next five years if they haven't already, and 93 percent of all respondents consider it "important" for the business's future. The executive subjects of the survey included those from both provider and payer companies.

"Anything that dramatically impacts health care operations will almost certainly have an effect on the supply chain."

When it came to possible hurdles for implementation, the one most prominent challenge was "lack of budget," which 16 percent of respondents attested to. The next two top obstacles were "regulatory issues" (13 percent) and incomplete data (12 percent).

The impact on supply chainsAnything that dramatically impacts health care operations will almost certainly have an effect on the supply chain side as well. If nothing else, the cost savings could stand to benefit the company and allow it to make different decisions. By focusing on obtaining usable data with greater accuracy, analytics also could steer deliveries to where they are needed and dictate important wholesale changes throughout a chain.

A Harvard Business Review piece from last April mentioned some of the many different roles that predictive analytics could play in the health care industry. Some of these possible uses include incorporating consistent electronic health record data, integrating all of the recovered data into the standard workflow successfully and prioritizing different decisions for maximum impact.

One earlier survey from Global Healthcare Exchange also seemed to assert predictive health care analytics as a priority. In a January 24 statement on its findings, the company said that predictive analytics was one of the goals for the 50 top provider organizations.

The company's CEO and President, Bruce Johnson, contextualized the current trend in the same statement.

"Health care's supply chain continues to be at a pivotal juncture, taking increased advantage of advanced technology to deliver affordable value-based care by accelerating efficiencies and improving access to quality data for decision-making," he said. "Improving operational performance and driving down costs through supply chain automation is one of our top priorities."

Practicing spend management and other measures may only be more important if health care technology follows this pattern.

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